The name Cat is used by almost every European nation with a slight variation:

English: cat Welsh: cath French: chat German: Katze Italian: gatto Spanish: gato Swedish/Norwegian: katt Holland/Belgian/Danish: kat

The word for cat in ancient Egypt was Mau. It is also found in countries around the Mediterranean: in yiddish it is kats, in greek, ga'ta, and in maltese qattus. The source appears to be Arabic, because the oldest use of it is found in North Africa, where it is quttah. And there is a similar word used by the Berber tribesman.

This fits with the idea that all domestic cats are descended from the North African wild cat, felis lybica, via domestication by the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians also provide us with an explanation of why we call a cat puss or pussy, these being variations of the name of the early Egyptian cat goddess, Bast (pronounced Pasht). Tying the animal even tighter to this part of the world is the origin of the word tabby, which comes from its Turkish name utabi. And the general word for a cat in Turkey is kedi, which has probably given us our pet word kitty.

Other Countries:

African dialect: Katsi Albanian: Macë Arabic: Biss/Hirrah/Qitah/Quttah Armenian: Gatz Basque: Catua Bulgarian: Kotka Catalan: Gat Cherokee (Tsalagi): Wesa Chinese: Mao Cree: Bushi Czech: Kocka Dutch: Poes Esperanto: Kato Estonian: Kiisu Farsi: Gorbe Filipino: Pusa Finnish: Kissa Fula (New Guniea): Gnari Gaelic: Cait Gujarati (India): Biladi

Hawiian: Popoki Hebrew: Cha'tool(a) (m/f) Hindi: Billy Hungarian: Cica/Macska Icelandic: Köttur Japanese: Neko Korean: Ko-yang-ee Latin: Cattus Lithuanian: Katinas Malay/Indonesian: Kucing Mayan: Miss Netherlands: Kat/Poes (m/f) Polish: Kot Romanian: Pisica Russian: Kot/Koshka (m/f) Slovak: Macka Swahili: Paka Thai/Vietnamese: Meo Ukranian: Kotuk Zulu: Ikati